Durham Energy Institute - Celebrating 10 years of achievements

I am honoured to be at the helm of Durham Energy Institute when it is celebrating its 10th anniversary. I was in industry when first it was mooted and played a part in its creation, thanks to an invitation from the first director Richard Davies to serve on the development board.

There was a real sense of excitement from all the people that gathered back then to lay the foundations for the Institute that was to pioneer a new approach to energy research. We are grateful to the hard work of all of our former colleagues, Development Board members and Advisory Board, past and present in supporting our activities and growth since 2009.

"Durham Energy Institute: based on a clear vision, taken forwards by an exceptional team"

A message from Professor Richard Davies, founder of DEI.

Universities are wonderful places for many reasons. Taking just one, they provide the freedom for talented people to be creative. They allow brilliant minds with a variety of global perspectives to come together. In this space ideas, dogmas, approaches, perspectives and opinions can bounce off each other so that new ways of thinking and approaching global problems can emerge. Creativity is the life-blood of universities and Durham has an embarrassment of riches from where great things can start. So in some ways the DEI success story is not remarkable given the starting point. We just had to build the right culture and put it all together and we did.

The role of DEI is as relevant as ever. The climate crisis requires us to produce clean, affordable energy to an increasing global population. There is no room for complacency. But DEI is well placed. The DEI story is not extraordinary - just an example of what can happen when a broad cross section of talented people at a world class university develop a culture of interdisciplinary working and engage with a range of organisations to contribute to solving a global challenge.